Bay Area's pro sports future on unstable ground

FROM THE SPORTS DESK

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, June 19, 2011

Jeff Gordon poses with the trophy in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race, Sunday, June 12, 2011, in Long Pond, Pa.

Jeff Gordon poses with the trophy in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race, Sunday, June 12, 2011, in Long Pond, Pa.

Photo: Russ Hamilton Sr., AP

Bay Area's pro sports future on unstable ground

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For one of the strongest sports markets in the country, the Bay Area sure has an uncertain future.

Jed York wants to move the 49ers to Santa Clara. A's owner Lew Wolff has his heart set on San Jose or Las Vegas. The Raiders are prime candidates to move into a new NFL stadium in Los Angeles. And the Warriors want to leave Oakland for San Francisco.

Add it all up and you have more story lines than a Tolstoy novel.

Granted, the moving and shaking could take years, and much of it will never transpire. But it makes you wonder what the Bay Area landscape will look like in a few years.

If everyone stays on their current trajectories, here's what will happen:

-- The A's will find a way to leave the Bay Area. Ownership has made it clear that they want to move to the South Bay. Meager spending, tarp-covered stands and closed vending stations at the outdated Coliseum have made that abundantly clear. By dragging its feet for years now, Major League Baseball has also made it clear it wants no part of a jurisdictional lawsuit with the Giants. The Oakland A's will be playing somewhere else in a few years. If you can't buy into Las Vegas as a destination, have you heard about the movement in Philadelphia to bring the team back to its ancestral home?

-- The Raiders will end up back in Los Angeles. As it stands, the team has said it is not for sale. But that could change in a big way when and if Al Davis is no longer part of the equation. Since their return from Los Angeles, the Raiders have played a distant second to the Niners in this market, rarely selling out and fielding mostly lackluster teams. A change of scenery, and an influx of new ownership money, will lure the Silver and Black back to Southern California.

-- The Warriors will be playing in "The City" as soon as they can. Having spoken to the teams' new owners, Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, about this a number of times last year, I can attest that both men are open to the idea and would welcome a new arena. Giants President Larry Baer has also expressed a deep desire, on behalf of his team and ownership group, to develop the land on the outskirts of AT&T Park's parking lots. And a mixed-use arena that could house an NBA team, along with entertainment acts, is at the top of everyone's list.

-- The Niners will fail in their efforts to move the team to Santa Clara. Despite their desire to leave San Francisco for greener monetary pastures, the team still has to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in financing to pay for the estimated $987 million project. With the NFL in labor chaos, and Santa Clara civic leaders questioning a recent request to give former great Joe Montana and former owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. an exclusive agreement to build a hotel, bar and restaurant across from the proposed stadium site, legitimate questions are popping up about this project. Where will the money come from? Why is Santa Clara being asked to make sweetheart deals? In the end, strong civic leadership in San Francisco will find a way to keep the city's first pro franchise where it was born.

So, after it all shakes out, San Francisco will be left with the Niners, Giants and Warriors. Oakland will be left out in the cold.

And the Bay Area's status as one of the top sports markets in the country will be diminished.

Is everyone OK with that? I'm not.

Vallejo's finest: Jeff Gordon is living the life.

The 39-year-old NASCAR driver recently tied for third place on the circuit's all-time wins list, with 84. He's married to a gorgeous Belgian model. He's worth millions of dollars. And he has two beautiful young children.

His daughter is turning 4 on Monday. Guess what? Daddy is making his movie debut this week in the Pixar movie "Cars 2," doing the voice for Jeff Gorvette.

It's the kind of life that could make one jealous. Until you talk to the guy.

Gordon is one of the most approachable superstars on the planet, easygoing and conversational. Seemingly no worries in the world.

When I asked the Vallejo native how it felt to come back to the Bay Area every year to race at Infineon Speedway, Gordon gushed about the area and the track.

"It's so interesting coming back every year now, because I never raced in Sonoma as a kid," said Gordon, who is racing in Michigan today before coming here for next Sunday's Toyota/SaveMart 350. "I raced go-karts and quarter midgets as a kid out here. And then I moved to the Midwest to pursue sprint car racing, and it wasn't until I came back here with NASCAR that I got a chance to race at Infineon."

It didn't take him long to get acquainted. Gordon has won five times on the road-course track.

"I never really considered myself much of a road racer growing up," Gordon said. "My specialty was ovals, and that's what took me into NASCAR. But we put big effort into every race we do, and after our second or third year out there, we started to have success."

After winning five times, though, Gordon hit a bit of a slump. He hasn't won in Sonoma since 2006, a drought that has mirrored his overall downturn on the circuit.

As Jimmie Johnson kept piling up championships over the past five years, many thought Gordon's time of dominance had passed.

He switched crew chiefs before the season started, and it's starting to pay off.

"We all go through stages in our lives," Gordon said. "We get more comfortable with who you are. And I've been racing for a long time. It's great we won two races (this year), but we've been inconsistent."

"There's no doubt my body doesn't feel quite the same when the race is over," he said. "It takes a couple days to recover. In the car, mentally, I feel as good and sharp as I've ever been."

As the shop talk died down and we got back to talking about the Bay Area, Gordon reflected a bit on the town he grew up in.

"Every once in a while, I try to drive through Vallejo and look at the schools I went to and the houses I lived in," he said. "When I was younger, I remember watching the World Series and Tug McGraw was pitching. He came from Vallejo.

Al Saracevic is The Chronicle's sports editor. You can e-mail him at asaracevic@sfchronicle.com.

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